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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187554">Family lunch</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yougaythen/pseuds/Yougaythen'>Yougaythen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ballum, EastEnders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>This does imply the mention of food but not in detail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:29:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,940</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187554</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yougaythen/pseuds/Yougaythen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Having lunch with the Carters was never in Ben’s list of things to do, but for Callum he’d do anything</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ballum - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Family lunch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ben can you hurry up please we have half an hour until we need to be there and you are still messing around in there” Callum calls into the bathroom to Ben “Yeah whatever, not like I want to go to this anyway” he returns, shouting slightly over the sound of the shower, switching it off and wrapping a towel around himself drying off and putting on his dressing gown and heading back out into the living room, walking straight through into the bedroom where Callum was sat in front of the mirror pulling his fingers through his lengthened hair. “You know I like the longer hair, gives me more to play with while your sleeping” Ben speaks up pulling on a pair of jeans “Shirt or top” he questions, Callum shifting around in the chair, turning to look at Ben “Whatever you like, it’s not a suit occasion just smart casual” “You know I almost kissed their boy before right, they’ll think I’m going through the gays in their family” <br/>“That was a mistake Ben, they are past that, they like you they really do, no matter what this will go well, and you’ll finally get to meet Ollie properly, he gives the best cuddles” “Better than mine?” “You know no cuddles are better than yours, now come here” Callum says arms stretched out ready to receive Ben, “Your freezing, I think you should put your top on” “Alright, I’ll go with the red one” he says grabbing it from the wardrobe pulling it over his head, ruffling the towel over his hair and pulling it back into a quiff with a comb. </p><p>They walked to the carters hand in hand, crossing the road and ringing the doorbell until they were met with Linda “Ben I’m so glad you could make it, he didn’t think you’d come. Come on in make yourselves comfortable at the table” “Thank you for having me Linda” “Mr here has been really stressing about making a good impression on you, he thinks you don’t like him” “Oh Ben don't be stupid, you make this one happy don’t ya” mick adds in tapping Callum on the back. “Ollie” Callum calls, heading out of the door to greet Ollie who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, walking up them to join Ollie in his bedroom leaving Ben with mick and Linda, “So um just us five” Ben questions awkwardly, realising he was alone with them “Yeah is that alright? You don’t have to feel uncomfortable around us Ben, I know it’s only the first time you’ve had lunch with us as a family but I can assure you that we aren’t that bad Callum put up with us long enough before you got back” <br/>“He used to live with you for a long time before I came back” “Yeah a year and a bit, a lot happened before you came back, do you two not talk about times before you knew each other” Linda says, a soft smile washing over her face “Not really, cal shuts down a bit when I try to so we just sort of leave it until he’s ready, he talks about the army sometimes but never anything much, he knows a lot about me, not some of the older details but more than I know about him. His past is like a mystery almost” “he was part of our family most of his childhood, broken home, became one of ours, grew up with our lot stayed over most nights not wanting to go home so he just became part of us, until he left for uni and cut most of the contact we had. When he came back from the army he was in a state, hiding things from us and shutting down all the time, strained his relationship with whit and it was hard. Then you came along and his world changed, he didn’t have to hide who he really was anymore, and alms I guess a part of me will always hate how things happened between you, him and whit but maybe now I appreciate what you’ve done, you make him happy and that’s all we care about, he will tell you when he’s ready and I’m sure you will too, but please Ben don’t ever feel uncomfortable around us, we might seem very shouty sometimes but behind all that we are just a normal family trying to get through everything” “I’ll forever feel bad but he couldn’t live a lie anymore, no one saw him hurt like I did because as soon as he was out after the shooting everything changes and I’m sure you might know that from your one but he has a lot going on in that oh so gorgeous head of his. I thank you though for taking him in as one of yours, who knows where he’d be or what he’d be like without you” Ben stands offering out a hug for Linda “Don’t ever feel afraid Ben, you see how Callum’s part of our family, you are too okay, for as long as you are with him” she says stepping backwards. </p><p>By the time they sat down for lunch Callum had managed to get Ollie out of his room, bringing him down the stairs in his arms placing him down on the chair opposite his own, mick and Linda has led the table with runners and fancy plates Callum had never seen before, he sat down next to Ben placing a reassuring hand upon his leg and shooting him the softest smile, their hands momentarily coming together then breaking apart as the food was delivered onto the table. </p><p>After lunch was finished they moved to the living room, all getting comfortable after quite a large meal, Ben sitting down holding an arm out to the side allowing Callum to rest his head upon Ben's shoulder “See wasn’t too bad was it” he turns his head to place a kiss upon Ben's shoulder allowing Ben to melt into the sofa a little “Who’s ready for a film then?” “Of course, but watch out because this one normally falls asleep during films” “Oh do I really babe, well you’re the one that’s been complaining you are tired all morning” </p><p>After about half an hour of the film bens attention shifted from the tv to his lap, where Callum had repositioned himself, head resting on Ben’s legs straight out asleep, “You do realise he’s asleep” Mick’s asking Ben “yeah, used to the change in weight now, he thinks I’m the only one that falls asleep at films but normally he falls asleep first then I follow into a nice sleepy mess but he almost always then wakes before me and denies he’s even been asleep” “well while he’s asleep we might have found some old photos of him while we were moving if you like to look” “And your sure he won’t mind me looking at them” “I don’t even think he knows we have them, give you a chance to look at little tiny Callum” she says handing over a photo album she took from the unit next to the chair she was sat in, “we used to take photos of him all the time, a proper little cutie, he had these little chubby cheeks that just framed his face so perfectly, lost them as he got older though, always this well spoken little one, chattering away about anything he could see but was always quiet when he went home, Stuart cared for him for a while when his dad up and left and then like I said earlier he fell into our family until he could make choices of his own.im sure a lot he wouldn’t remember but it was nothing of late at night to have the door banging with Stuart outside with him in his arms fast asleep like he is now and he’d wake up in the morning, no questions and off to school he’d go. He’s clearly a lot safer in your arms” she continued, Ben placing a kiss on his fingertips and bringing them to Callum’s head where his hand lightly trailed through his hair fingers absentmindedly just resting there. “He loves you a whole lot Ben, he really does, he wants a future with you one filled with love and trust and a sense of family, I’m going to tell you a little maybe secret because I don’t know if he’s ever talked about this but back when he was with Whit they were desperate for children, so many failed attempts and you could see on his face he’d have done anything for a child, he looked after Ollie a lot giving him constant cuddles, sitting on the floor playing with his toys with him, bet he’s like it with your Lexi too?” She smiles “I don’t think he can get enough of her, she loves him even more than she loves me I think, always sitting on his lap begging for certain toys or days off school because she knows it’s an instant win with him and then he gives me that look” “I’ll let you look through there while I go check Mick and Ollie, I’ll be back in a bit” she says getting up and heading up the stairs. </p><p>They stayed snuggled on the sofa for a while Ben looking through the photos of little Callum, towards the back were some early teen Callum, pulling out his phone Ben took some photos of his favourites, it was at that point Callum started to stir shifting his head until he was looking up, his own sleepy blue eyes meeting Ben’s “Where is everyone” he sleepily mumbles “With Ollie upstairs, you must have been tired, I was talking to Linda about you when you were little” his hand coming back up into Callum’s hair ”Not here Ben please” “She showed me some photos and lets be honest if you were to have a kid they’d be the cutest child on the planet, you were adorable babe” “hmm” he lets out sitting up and looking at the time “Ben we should have been gone hours ago, why didn’t you wake me” “Because clearly you were tired otherwise you wouldn’t have slept so long, Ollie slept too” “Ah look the two sleepy ones are awake” mick says looking back at Linda who has Ollie in her arms “Thank you for having us Linda but we really should be going, home, this ones doing bedtime for Lexi tonight and we don’t want to be late, sorry I fell asleep” Callum’s saying getting up offering out a hand to Ben “It’s alright, we kinda gathered you two would be off soon anyway because it’s almost dinner time” Micks replying, Linda placing Ollie on the floor taking each of them into a hug then letting them out of the door, hand in hand. </p><p>“See that wasn’t bad was it?” Leaning down to place a kiss on Ben’s forehead “No, you did fall<br/>asleep and leave me though, Linda’s lovely, I’d like to do it again sometime” “Oh look at you being all soft, let’s go change then over to Lex we go then” </p><p>Maybe the efforts of family dinners weren’t that bad, especially not when you got to see how much of a cutie your boyfriend was when he was little, Ben would bring up the photos at some point but for now they had a story and a slightly sleepy girl to put to bed. And then take themselves home to bed properly instead of the sofa.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading, this was prompted to me on twitter, and I had a lot of fun writing it, there will be a potential sequel to it in the coming weeks!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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